


Request And Require.

by Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)



Series: Petya 'verse - All Petya Vorkosigan Fics [7]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: AU of an AU, Alternate Universe, Community: contrelamontre, Education politics, Time Period: Reign of Gregor Vorbarra, Time Period: Vorkosigan Regency
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-04
Updated: 2010-10-04
Packaged: 2017-10-12 10:29:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/123915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Petya 'verse AU: They should have realized the danger inherent in giving Petya that much power. Too late now. Follows some years after <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/123318">Asylum</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Request And Require.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the [](http://contrelamontre.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**contrelamontre**](http://contrelamontre.dreamwidth.org/) (Dreamwidth community) fifty minute Late challenge.

Padma Vorpatril is not just starting to regret appointing Petya to be Gregor's legal guardian. No, he's been regretting that since about five minutes after Petya took oath to safeguard Gregor, to stand as his father, and so on and so forth, while Uncle Piotr admonished him about responsibility, and the Counts grumbled to themselves that this is really far, far too transparent of the Vorkosigans.

Because then Petya decided to take his oath seriously and actually act in what _he_ thought was Gregor's best interest.

Padma would be cackling right about now, except that that would be terribly, horribly evil of him.

Instead, he nods thoughtfully as Petya sits perched on the edge of a couch, several papers spread out in front of him, while he presents his case. Petya's arranged this well, Padma notes approvingly. It's all calculated in a way to cast Uncle Piotr as the head of government, Padma as representative of the general staff, and Alys as arbitrator of all things womanly and motherly. Padma has to squint to see Uncle Piotr as the Lord Regent, himself as an Admiral of the Fleet, and Alys as the woman who tells Vor ladies what to think.

This isn't a discussion about education, Padma thinks. This is the Emperor's government suing for terms at the feet of the Emperor's foster-father. Petya has them completely on the defensive.

Padma would admire this in something other than theory were it not for the fact that Petya is clearly out of his inbred mind.

Gregor, for his part, is sitting to the side, all ten years and four and a half feet of him curled up on an overlarge chair, with his shoes dangling over the side. He looks about as Imperial as a house cat. But Petya is making it perfectly clear that he is speaking for the Emperor's Household in this matter, demanding that the Government and the Military and Society fall into line, and he's pitching it so that it's meant to be a harbinger of years to come: everyone squabbling like chickens until the Emperor decides to join the conversation and, having listened to his advisors's opinions, give his judgment and end the conversation.

"That's all well and good," Padma interrupts, "but you're wrong."

"No, I'm not," Petya says serenely. "Sire," he addresses Gregor, "attending any sort of military school would be both a waste of your time, and a waste of everyone else's. You would never be permitted to serve as an officer due to the immense risk involved, and your very presence would confuse everyone else. How would you conduct military reviews as a cadet? How would you give orders to your fleet as one? If you cast yourself deliberately as the lowest of the low in the military order, it would be difficult for everyone involved, because you are the commander of the armed forces."

"Don't confuse the issue," Uncle Piotr rumbles. "He will graduate before his majority."

"And then?" Petya returns. "And then _what_? Having spent years grubbing in the mud with children, he will then turn twenty and turn his back on the last three years of his life? What a waste of time and effort."

"He could spend a year in the service," Padma says. "We already allow it for Count's heirs who become Counts after having been accepted into the Academy. They are permitted a year before no longer being allowed to serve."

"Doing so would be a mockery," Petya says. "Can you imagine Gregor serving openly as an Ensign? Would you want him on one of _your_ ships, with every officer on board responsible for his safety, oath-bound to obey him?"

"Well, no," Padma has to admit. "Not when he could countermand every order."

"And would be the one _giving_ them," Petya says. "Ultimately, as Emperor, all orders come from him, through his chosen representatives. Every order you give is in your Emperor's voice, and I know you don't ever forget that, Admiral. Sending him to the Academy would simply be absurd."

"Then what do you suggest?" Alys says. "He's ten, dear. Sending him to the preparatory school was decided years ago. We have still more years to decide if he would go into the military."

"But that's what the preparatory schools are for," Petya says. "Padma, you remember. The entire curriculum is geared towards passing the entrance examinations for the Academy. If you remove the Academy from the equation, the preparatory schools are useless. Worse than useless, because it would build up a false picture in the military's mind of what the Emperor is actually going to be doing during his minority."

"And what do you want him to do during his minority?" Uncle Piotr demands. "Flounce around like a clown, getting drunk?"

Gregor's head dips back over the chair. "I'm too young to drink, Count Vorkosigan," he says, smiling a bit upside-down.

Petya looks annoyed that Gregor decided to enter the conversation this early on in the mudslinging. "He will be getting an education," he says firmly, directing the conversation back to himself. "There are several elite academies which are not geared towards sending everyone in them to the officer ranks. I think it would be an excellent precedent to set, as well as being the first sign to society that Emperor Gregor will not be wasting His military's time and energy by playing soldier games with real soldiers."

Alys is a few steps ahead of Padma, which Padma is thankful for, because it means he's steps-behind figuring out what Petya is actually proposing doing and therefore spared several valuable seconds of unmitigated horror. "You want to send him to a Betan school?"

Petya nods. "It would be excellent diplomatic training for him, and I promise you that the families of the students enrolled would be thrilled."

"If they wanted their children to interact with Barrayarans," Padma says, "they would send them to Barrayaran schools, not their own little haven of Betan education."

"Which, nevertheless, gives us a resource we should be exploiting. Cross-cultural experience is worth its weight in gold, and it's terribly difficult to buy. I should know," he adds thoughtfully. "Gregor would get exposed to students from a completely different culture who are not so different, having lived on Barrayar long enough for their parents to enroll them in school. And they would not be inherently bad influences; the Betan students are mostly children of the diplomatic and trade communities, and the students who are not Betan or Barrayaran come from planets like Earth." He looks to Uncle Piotr and says, nearly gently, "there aren't any Escobarans there. I checked."

"Preaching sedition," Uncle Piotr starts.

Alys, with pure, excellent, unappreciated timing, interrupts him. "Petya, you are getting ahead of yourself. Does ImpSec know about this?"

Petya reaches over the low table and hands Alys a handwritten report. "As far as they're concerned, my idea is preferable. No one is playing with live ammunition, and the buildings are much easier to secure. Gregor would probably be safer there than he is in the middle of ImpSec headquarters."

Padma, remembering the last time Gregor was in the middle of ImpSec headquarters, winces.

"And," Petya continues, looking to Uncle Piotr, "Gregor is going to be exposed to a lot more radical notion in his life than what he will get in a room of twelve-year-old transplanted Betans. It's best to start him off slow, don't you think? Get him used to it, and he'll have no problems whatsoever when he comes of age and has to deal with the Nexus and all that entails. We can buy this kind of education, Gran'da, and it will pay off a hundredfold in ten years, a thousandfold in twenty. Never underestimate the value of learning how to make rational and valid counter-arguments and not just scream and pound and exercise Imperial authority."

And, oh, Padma hopes that goes entirely over Gregor's head. From the look on his face, it hasn't.

Padma, suspiciously, wonders who actually came up with this idea: Petya or Gregor. He'd thought Petya had, but from the look on Gregor's face, that was the crux of the issue. Oh, that poor boy. He wanted to learn how to debate and how to keep his temper when challenged? _We waited too long in killing Serg_. True, they'd done it as fast as they could, and Padma spares a small thought for the late, lamented Captain Negri, whose hands had killed an Emperor at another Emperor's order, who had obeyed Ezar even after Ezar died, and who had died of his wounds after seeing Gregor take the throne. Alas, poor Negri, but he never deserved pity, he deserved thanks and congratulation and a hero's burial.

"I agree with My guardian," Gregor says, clearly testing out the Imperial pronouns on his tongue and not sure if he likes the taste of them.

"Of course you do," Alys says. "Petya wouldn't have brought it up if you didn't agree with him. But your education is not a private matter, Gregor, it is a state matter."

"He is the state," Petya says. "By definition. And in reality--"

"The decision has been made," Gregor says. "I want you to tell me how we're going to sell this to everyone, not try to convince me it's a bad idea and I should instead spend my time learning to be the soldier that My security and My government would never permit Me to be."

Which sets off another round of arguing.

Yes, Padma sighs. It really is too late to start regretting this. But on the bright side, it's about time that everyone else starts regretting it, too. _I can't wait to see the look on Vortrifrani's face when he finds out that Gregor is behind this, not Petya._ And it's far too late to untangle Gregor from Petya's influence. The old conservative faction is going to choke harder than Uncle Piotr is. _And I get to watch._

Cheered by the sheer joy of the mental image, Padma sits forward and enters into the fray. Just because it's a foregone conclusion doesn't mean the fight's over. What would be the fun in that?


End file.
